English Muffin Bread is the perfect loaf for toasting—loaded with nooks and crannies to hold all that jelly, jam, and melted butter you love. This never-fail homemade bread recipe is no-knead, mixes by hand, and is so easy to make.
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😊Why you will love English Muffin Bread
- A delicious homemade muffin bread you will make over and over.
- The perfect recipe for beginner bread makers with easy step-by-step photo instructions. It is hand mixed with no kneading and done in about 2 hours.
- It is easier to make and a great substitute for real English muffins with the same great taste and texture.
- This bread is most commonly sliced and toasted, then slathered with butter and jelly to fill all those nooks and crannies. Also, great for French toast or makes terrific sandwiches.
- This no-knead English muffin bread is soft, coarse-textured white bread. Not only is it a great bread, but it is also an easy and fun recipe to make.
- AKA English Toasting bread.
Based on Cook Country English Muffin Bread Recipe (membership required)/ I made it a one-loaf recipe and added options and details.
📋Ingredients
- Instant dry yeast
- Milk or dry milk with water
- Pantry ingredients—salt, sugar, baking soda
- Cornmeal—optional
👨🍳How to Make English Muffin Bread
- Mix dry ingredients of flour, sugar, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Mix in yeast if not added to the liquid to proof the yeast. Add dry milk if using water.
- Add warm milk or water into the dry ingredients until there is no dry left but do not over-mix.
- Coat a bowl with PAM cooking spray, add the dough, and cover. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size—about 30-60 minutes.
- Coat a loaf pan with butter and then dust with cornmeal.
- Let the dough rinse in a warm place—for about 30 minutes.
- Bake until golden brown and internal temp of 190°-200°—about 30-35 minutes.
- Cool on a rack.
✔️Tips
- This is a "light dough" with not a lot of structure. It needs to be contained by the loaf pan to bake well. The top will not "crown," and it may "fall" a little at the end.
- Let the loaf cool completely before cutting, or you may rip it apart. And when you do cut it, a sharp serrated blade knife is a good idea.
- Hand mixing is preferred. Stand mixers and bread machines will tend to over-mix.
- One package of yeast is 2 ½ teaspoons of bulk dry yeast.
- Using bread flour instead of AP flour will give a slightly better structure from more gluten formation. Use what you have.
- Instant Yeast is essentially the same as Fast-Rising, Rapid-Rise, Quick Rise, and Bread Machine Yeast. Active dry yeast can be used, but it works slower.
- Coating the baking pan with cornmeal is traditional but not required. You can skip the cornmeal, but it will lose some taste and classic crunch.
❓FAQs
No. English muffins and this bread are American creations and not English. The muffin bread is also known as English Muffin Toasting Bread.
Although a British immigrant in New York City developed English Muffins.
An internal temperature of 190° is a reliable endpoint for yeast bread. That is fine here, although the model recipe used 200°.
Other signs of fully baked bread should also be present, like a nice brown color and a hollow sound when tapped.
❄️Storage
Like many homemade loaves of bread, there are no preservatives, so the shelf life is relatively short at only 2-3 days.
You can freeze this bread tightly sealed for 2-3 months. Like all bread, refrigerator storage is not recommended.
📖Bread Recipes
Easy Oven Baked English Muffins
Julia Childs French Bread; Simplified
Stand Mixer Rustic Peasant Bread
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Things I always have on hand.
Optional proofing of the yeast—Mix one pack of instant yeast into 1 ½ cups of 105° - 110° water or milk. Let's sit while you do the dry mix. It should foam a little after a few minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 ½ cups of AP or bread flour, ½ cup dried milk if not using milk, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 ½ teaspoon of sugar.
Mix wet into dry and stir until there is no dry left.
Spray the bowl and some plastic wrap with a good spray of PAM on one side and cover the bowl with the plastic. The PAM will prevent sticking if the plastic touches the sticky dough. Place in a warm spot until double in size—30-60 minutes.
Coat a loaf pan with butter and swirl about two tablespoons of cornmeal to coat. This is an 8X4 glass pan, but metal should be fine.
Preheat oven to 375°. Move the dough into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until even with the top of the pan — about 30 minutes.
Remove plastic wrap. Bake until golden brown and internal temp of 190°-200°—about 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool for about 60 minutes on a rack.
Recipe
English Muffin Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 package instant yeast - approximately 2 ½ teaspoons
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- 1 ½ cup milk or water
- ½ cup dried milk - if using water
- 2 ½ cups bread or AP flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- butter - For loaf pan
- cornmeal-optional - For loaf pan
Instructions
- Optional proofing of the yeast—Mix one pack of instant yeast into 1 ½ cups of 105° - 110° water or milk. Let's sit while you do the dry mix. It should foam a little after a few minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 ½ cups of AP or bread flour, ½ cup dried milk if not using milk, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 ½ teaspoon of sugar.
- Mix wet into dry and stir until there is no dry left.
- Spray the bowl and some plastic wrap with a good spray of PAM on one side and cover the bowl with the plastic. The PAM will prevent sticking if the plastic touches the sticky dough. Place in a warm spot until double in size—30-60 minutes.
- Coat a loaf pan with butter and swirl about two tablespoons of cornmeal to coat. This is an 8X4 glass pan, but metal should be fine.
- Preheat oven to 375°. Move the dough into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until even with the top of the pan — about 30 minutes.
- Remove plastic wrap. Bake until golden brown and internal temp of 190°-200°—about 30-35 minutes.
- Allow to cool for about 60 minutes on a rack.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- You may use fresh milk or dried milk.
- Use either bread flour or all-purpose flour.
- Most yeasts will work other than old fashion “active dry yeast.” One pack of yeast is 2 ½ teaspoons if you have bulk. You can round that up to 1 tablespoon if you want.
- I suggest an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan. A 9 by 5 should be ok, but not bigger.
- I suggest using a thermometer to check for a final internal temperature of 190° to 200°. Also, when tapped, a nice brown color and a hollow sound should be present.
- The top of the loaf will probably be flat or even sunken a bit.
- Cool completely before cutting, or it will rip apart.
- Store tightly sealed at room temperature for 2-3 days. It may last 4 days, but maybe not. Do not refrigerate. You may freeze well sealed for 2-3 months.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editors Note: Originally Published January 18, 2014. Update with expanded discussion and refreshed photos. A table of contents was also added to aid navigation.
Bllue
Looking forward to trying this recipe. I love English Muffin bread, especially toasted.
In Pro Tip #8 it says "You may freeze well sealed for 2-3 days." I'm hoping that should be months rather than days. This bread always disappears quickly but I was going to double the recipe and freeze 1 loaf!
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Yep, months—fixed.
Joy Beckerley
Can you use whole wheat flour in this recipe? Can you add dried fruit? Thanks. Joy
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Joy,
Welcome to the blog.
I have never done it. It is ok to try some whole wheat but here are some generalities. Whole wheat needs more fluid, so the more whole flour added, the more liquid. Also, whole wheat has less glutin and a lot of the appeal of this recipe depends on the glutin creating the nooks and crannies.
So you can probable get away with 25% whole wheat by just adding a bit more fluid. Also, switch the white flour to bread flour, which has more glutin, would be a good idea.
50% will be a more dense bread but probably would be acceptable (I think). More the 50%- find a different recipe, it just won't be good.
Adding dried fruit would be generally fine. Dust the fruit with some flour before adding it and it will help keep it suspended throughout the dough.
Hope that helps. If you try it, please post your results.
Dan
bev
Note oven temp. One place says 375, another says 350. May have to adjust time. It smells wonderful as taking from oven now.
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Bev,
Welcome to the blog.
As they say, see something say something. Thanks so much for the proofread. This one is embarrassing. Fixed. That is 375 everywhere.
Dan
Jan
Dr Dan
First off I want to say I like your recipes very much. My husband and I are empty nesters. After cooking for 5 for alot of years I was finding it hard to cook for 2 again not with the help of your recipes I getting used to it. Do have a question about your English muffin bread recipe ; when you say dry milk do you mean powder milk?
Thanks for your time
May god bless you and keep you safe
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
Hi Jan,
Welcome to the blog and I'm glad you are finding it useful.
Yes, I use the terms "dry milk" and "powdered milk" interchangeably. I have seen both on packages and it is all the same and meets USDA standards.
I like to use powder (dry) milk since I can get the temperature I want for the liquid right much easier. I seem to never "hit the mark" when trying to get fresh milk to the temperature I want. I'm lazy.
Also, as you know, in a smaller household, keeping fresh milk can lead to waste. I always have dry in the pantry and I frequently don't have fresh.
So I published the recipe as dry milk but gave a fresh milk option.
Dan
Caroline
Thanks! I was looking for a way to use up some dried milk. I'll definitely give this a try.
Deloris
I found another English Muffin Bread from onegoodthingbyjillee.com using only water, yeast, sugar, salt and flour. It makes wonderful toast too.